Childbirth Problems—Blood Disorders

Also called: Hematologic diseases

Your blood is living tissue made up of liquid and solids. The liquid part, called plasma, is made of water, salts and protein. Over half of your blood is plasma. The solid part of your blood contains red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Blood disorders affect one or more parts of the blood and prevent your blood from doing its job. They can be acute or chronic. Many blood disorders are inherited. Other causes include other diseases, side effects of medicines, and a lack of certain nutrients in your diet.

Types of blood disorders include

Platelet disorders, excessive clotting, and bleeding problems, which affect how your blood clots
Anemia, which happens when your blood does not carry enough oxygen to the rest of your body
Cancers of the blood, such as leukemia and myeloma
Eosinophilic disorders, which are problems with one type of white blood cell.

Blood differential test (Medical Encyclopedia)
Blood smear (Medical Encyclopedia)
CBC (Medical Encyclopedia)
Hematocrit (Medical Encyclopedia)
Hemoglobin (Medical Encyclopedia)
Low white blood cell count and cancer (Medical Encyclopedia)
RBC count (Medical Encyclopedia)
RBC indices (Medical Encyclopedia)
WBC count (Medical Encyclopedia)

While childbirth usually goes well, complications can happen. They can cause a risk to the mother, baby, or both. Possible complications include

Preterm (premature) labor, when labor starts before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy
Problems with the umbilical cord
Problems with the position of the baby, such as breech, in which the baby is going to come out feet first
Birth injuries

For some of these problems, the baby may need to be delivered surgically by a Cesarean section.